How do I keep track of affiliate income from Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and several programmes?

These details come from the providers’ help pages, FAQs and terms, read on 21 October 2026; the wyrld row follows wyrld’s creator terms (January 2026). According to its blog, YouTube has been rolling out its Shopping affiliate programme in Germany since 3 September 2026, but the programme’s help page does not yet list Germany among its countries. The YouTube payout, timing and threshold details therefore come from help pages without specific information for Germany and may differ here. The €70 is the payout threshold for your whole AdSense for YouTube balance (reporting currency euro), which YouTube’s help says is also how it pays YouTube Partner Programme earnings. So keep ad revenue and Shopping commission on separate rows.

For links you put in your Instagram bio and stories, the programme behind the link is what counts: that is where clicks, sales and payouts are recorded, and where you get your numbers. Every account you hold somewhere is its own source in your list.

The amounts are made up. The example shows why the month earned and the payment date need separate columns: on 20 October, Amazon’s July earnings are in your account, August’s are not, and the YouTube commission from September is only an estimate. YouTube itself labels this revenue as estimated; according to its help, commission is usually only approved after two to three months.

The “who pays, with country” column in the template below helps with VAT. On TikTok Shop, according to TikTok, the invoice or receipt goes to the shops whose products you feature. TikTok says there are invoices only if you are VAT-registered; if you are not, or are below the thresholds, there are receipts. The VAT on the invoice, TikTok says, depends on where you both are: in the same EU country, local VAT; between EU countries, reverse charge, where the shop owes the VAT; and for shops outside the EU there is no invoice with VAT. As a Kleinunternehmer (small business scheme), the Hessian tax authority’s guide says you may not show VAT on invoices. For each item, the monthly report shows who pays: name, country and, where available, VAT number.

Also check if an amount includes VAT. According to TikTok, amounts in its monthly report include VAT where applicable; Amazon says its payment contains no VAT. If you are liable for VAT in Germany, Stylink’s terms say you must tell it so with your VAT number. If you do not use the Kleinunternehmer scheme and have a business account, Stylink pays the VAT on top of the displayed earnings. If you keep the list in a spreadsheet, paste the columns below into the first cell and split them into columns at the semicolons.

Source; Month earned; Status (pending, confirmed, paid); Amount in dashboard; Amount received; of which VAT; Payment date; Who pays, with country; Document (credit note, report, invoice); Where it’s filed; Note

The programmes deliver their numbers on different dates. According to their help pages, Amazon shows the line with your earnings in the payment history from the 5th of the month, TikTok Shop creates the monthly report by the 7th, and AdSense for YouTube calculates the previous month’s final earnings between the 7th and 12th. Invoices TikTok Shop issues on your behalf arrive about 15 days after month end, which TikTok calls a target that can vary. So a fixed date just after the 15th usually works for every source; if a TikTok invoice is still missing, add it at your next check.

1. Get the reports: download the monthly reports, on TikTok Shop for example under Creator Center, Einnahmen (earnings), Steuererklärungen (tax statements), Bericht zu Einnahmen (earnings report) in the German interface. Save credit notes from emails in that month’s folder.
2. Set the status: anything a programme still estimates or lists as pending stays pending. Only what is confirmed gets “confirmed”, and only what has reached your account gets “paid”.
3. Check your bank account: match every payment on your statement to a row and enter the date and amount. On TikTok Shop, according to its help, the “Affiliate-Bestellungen” (affiliate orders) page lets you switch between order date and settlement date, see the expected payout date and export up to 15,000 records for reconciliation.
4. Note the differences: deductions for returns, amounts below the payment threshold that roll over to the next month, corrections or fees.
5. Chase up older rows: check pending amounts from earlier months. If something stays pending longer than the programme says it should, ask the programme.

If you work as a creator on a regular basis, the Hessian tax authority’s guide (June 2026) says the tax office assumes income from a trade (Gewerbebetrieb), and commission on sales through your links counts as Betriebseinnahmen (business income). Among the things you must do, the guide lists recording income and expenses individually, completely, correctly, promptly and in order, and keeping the receipts. According to the guide, there is usually no obligation to keep full accounts; you then work out your profit with an Einnahmenüberschussrechnung (EÜR, cash-basis profit statement): business income minus business expenses (§ 4(3) EStG).

In the EÜR, income counts in the year you receive it (§ 11(1) sentence 1 EStG), not in the year of the sale. According to its help, Amazon pays December 2026 earnings at the end of February 2027; under the basic rule, they therefore belong to 2027. There is an exception for regularly recurring income received shortly before the start or after the end of the year it economically belongs to (§ 11(1) sentence 2 EStG). The law does not define “shortly”; your tax adviser can tell you if the exception applies to you.

VAT works on different dates. If you are not a Kleinunternehmer (small business scheme), the guide says the turnover on credit notes also goes into your advance VAT return. Which return period it belongs to follows § 13(1) no. 1 UStG: normally, VAT arises at the end of the period in which you performed the service, even if you have not been paid yet. If the tax office allows you Ist-Versteuerung (cash accounting for VAT) on application (§ 20 UStG), the period in which the money comes in counts. According to TikTok, even for invoices TikTok Shop issues for you, the tax liability and your reporting obligations remain with you.

The retention period starts at the end of the calendar year in which the record was created or the entry made (§ 147(4) AO). So you keep a credit note from March 2026 until the end of 2034, and the period does not end while the limitation period for assessing a tax the record matters for is still running (§ 147(3) sentence 5 AO). If in doubt, keep reports that an entry in your list relies on like receipts; your tax adviser can tell you what counts as a Buchungsbeleg (accounting record). Save reports as files rather than leaving them in a dashboard: TikTok Shop, for example, says in a help article dated 28 May 2026 that it unified how its earnings dashboard calculates commission, which could change the figures shown.

In your monthly list, wyrld is one source with one row per month, even if your products come from many shops. You only paste the product link: wyrld recognises the brand, name and variant, looks for the same item across more than 90,000 partner shops and automatically creates the affiliate link for each offer it finds. You don’t sign up with any network for this, so these shops add no further accounts or rows. At the start of each month, wyrld settles the previous month with a Gutschrift. You find it in your dashboard under “Abrechnung” (billing) and can use it directly for your bookkeeping; you track clicks and commission in the same dashboard.

If wyrld finds a product in several shops, your audience sees the offers with prices side by side and buys directly from the shop of their choice at no extra cost. According to Bitkom (2022), 65% of German online shoppers say the lowest price is a decisive factor when choosing a shop. Each offer in the price comparison runs through wyrld. Depending on the shop, you earn per click, per sale or both, and whichever shop your audience buys from, your list still has just the one wyrld row.

wyrld pays out sales commission once the shop or affiliate programme has paid it to wyrld; commission is calculated on the net value after returns and cancellations. If something on a credit note is wrong, the creator terms give you 14 days to tell wyrld in writing; after that, the billing is deemed approved. So check the wyrld credit note as soon as it arrives, not only at your check after the 15th. wyrld is free for creators and not exclusive, so you can use it alongside programmes you already have. If you work with a talent agency, it manages your storefront with you from its own dashboard and sees the same numbers. wyrld deducts an agreed commission share from your earnings in the monthly billing, and you each receive separate credit notes.